New Muppets movie must be almost all bluescreen

I have a DVD player that allows you to zoom out giving you more of the picture. Sometimes this allows you to see things that are not meant to be in shot or other times just a black frame.

I tried it with the new Muppets Movie. To my surprise all the shots below Muppet waist level shows their legs (except Kermit)
and the Muppets with live action hands - their elbows with no puppet sleeves or puppeteers in view in almost every scene.

This must mean blue screen was used in almost the whole movie? Perhaps it's something to do with the technique they used to remove the rods?
Has anyone else tried this?
What is unusual is, if they did this, why they did not show them purposely below waist more often. Perhaps it gives too much of a CGI type appearance?

Thanks! I guess it’s probably cheaper than being on location for every scene. They're doing it with most movies now probably.

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It works for full-bodied shots (like Walter dancing), but it takes away from the warmth, realism, and believability of the scene if they basically green-screen or blue screen the location entirely. I know it's "cheaper" to do it that way, but really, can't the movie industry find other areas to trim the budget so the actual work itself doesn't have to suffer by LOOKING like a cheaply-made movie?

I AM curious though as to how they were able to successful do chromakey with Zoot, considering his hair is basically the same color as the blue screen.

There's a video of it on Vimeo: it's basically almost like Photoshop, they shot each individual character (against bluescreen), then super-imposed them into the arches, then super-imposed all of them into the final shot.

There's a video of it on Vimeo: it's basically almost like Photoshop, they shot each individual character (against bluescreen), then super-imposed them into the arches, then super-imposed all of them into the final shot.

See, I don't quite get this. Like, I see why blue screen needed to be used for Walter in that scene, but the other two examples, EM and Kermit talking to the Muppets, I see no reason that blue screen would've been necessary. We already shot all the Muppets, so just go and put Kermit facing them, and shoot it. Can't the EM actually be shot on location? I know it might save them a bit of money, but as D'Snowth said, I think there's better alternatives to saving money than to use all that blue screen...

See, I don't quite get this. Like, I see why blue screen needed to be used for Walter in that scene, but the other two examples, EM and Kermit talking to the Muppets, I see no reason that blue screen would've been necessary. We already shot all the Muppets, so just go and put Kermit facing them, and shoot it. Can't the EM actually be shot on location? I know it might save them a bit of money, but as D'Snowth said, I think there's better alternatives to saving money than to use all that blue screen...

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It saves them a lot of time and money. Imagine, they have to bring all their cameras, and puppeteers to the subway station, to film a four second scene. Plus, they have to rent out the station for the day. This way, it probably took them an hour to get it right, instead of having to go through all that trouble to get the subway scene.
Truthfully, when I watched the movie, I had no idea that it was blue screen until I read this article.

It saves them a lot of time and money. Imagine, they have to bring all their cameras, and puppeteers to the subway station, to film a four second scene. Plus, they have to rent out the station for the day. This way, it probably took them an hour to get it right, instead of having to go through all that trouble to get the subway scene.
Truthfully, when I watched the movie, I had no idea that it was blue screen until I read this article.

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What about for the Kermit facing the Muppets scene? Why did Kermit have to be done on blue screen? All they would've had to do was put Kermit's back facing the camera and shoot him along with it...

And I do see your point on the subway scene, but my point is that I think that we could find better, more productive ways to make money and save time than not going to a subway station.